Bit surprised this thread hasn't turned up yet. What were your favourite albums of the past 12 months? Shout outs to Bastille and Gwen Stefani that got quite regular plays from me but my top 5 are as follows.

5) Viola Beach-Viola Beach. Bit of a sad one. It's true, I may never have heard their music had they not tragically died earlier this year. But the fact is, I was exposed to their music and I really enjoyed their album. Constantly giving me 2006/7 teas and that is never a bad thing. Just a shame I'll never hear another album from them.

4) Kings Of Leon-Walls. I can always rely on KoL to deliver but this album seemed even better than usual. I was constantly hoping Waste A Moment could sneak a week top 40 in the charts but it wasn't to be.

3) KT Tunstall-KIN. I loved her first 3 albums but admittedly bar one of two tracks, I just couldn't get in to the fourth. KIN though was a breath of fresh air and KT had certainly found her form again.

2) Rebecca Ferguson-Superwoman. I wasn't bowled over with the covers album but Rebecca always excels with her studio albums and I think that Superwoman was the best one yet. I still can't believe she never gets the success she truly deserves. So talented, yet so ignored.

1) Jack Garratt-Phase. I usually can't stand anyone who's been touted 'sound of' or 'critic'c choice' but for some reason, Jack's music has spoken to me. In particular, Breathe Life which I was obsessed with at the beginning of the year. He may not be the most exciting artist in the world but his album has a feel to it that I just love. It's a shame he never really got any success with it, he deserves so much more.

I haven't listened to Jack Garratt's album as I only really like 'Breathe Life' but I would actually say he's an exciting artist! Especially his live performances where he does everything himself, he's just not that commercial.

I need to listen to a lot more albums from this year but out of the few that I have listened to Christine & the Queens was by far my favourite.

Biffy Clyro's Ellipsis was also better than their previous one I felt! I liked Bastille's Wild World, AlunaGeorge's I Remember, Sia's This Is Acting and Alessia Cara's Know It All as well but I need to listen to them more.

Katy B's Honey was good and better than I initially thought but I was hoping for it to be a bit better.

I loved Hopelessness by Anohni - I feel that it summed up very well the mood of 2016 for me. The themes within it about feeling hopeless about the way that the world is going definitely hit home, favourite track is Drone Bomb Me - Hudson Mohawke is an extremely talented producer, and he is from Glasgow.

I also enjoyed Spiritual Songs for Lovers to Sing by LUH / Lost Under Heaven - again a very political album, Lament I knew from 2013 and sounds like a call-to-arms revolution type song with its second refrain 'to the powers of old, to the powers that be: You fucked up this world but you won't fuck with me'. But there are messages of hope on there like the beautiful I&I which really hooked me in at the start of the year. Ellery has a very unique voice that many won't like but I don't think that perfect vocals are all that, particularly if you've got nothing to say... see: Emile Sandé

Other albums I enjoyed, 99.9% by KAYTRANADA, A Moon Shaped Pool by Radiohead, Freetown Sound by Blood Orange and Trick by Jamie T.

the 'god tier' albums of the year for me:Lemon Demon 'Spirit Phone' - very fun and creative, almost like every song has its own unique character. may take a while to get into but it really helped make my year <3Thee Oh Sees 'A Weird Exits' - brilliant garage rock album once again, if you liked Gelatinous Cube in UP then don't hesitate to check this outKero Kero Bonito 'Bonito Generation' - how can anyone not like this lot, like the Lemon Demon album there's a ton of unique and infectious tracks to be found

01 twenty one pilots - blurryface (I know this is 2015 but they defined my 2016 and I heard the album then, I knew and liked them before vaguely but as soon as I went deeper into their discography they became my fave band, one of my absolute fave acts and this album is just flawless)02 Beyonce - Lemonade (such an important album, it's easy for people to moan she and this is overrated but it tackels so many social issues flawlessly with a range of genres, without compromising consistency and quality)03 Little Mix - Glory Days (not quite Get Weird but this is simply just amazing pop music and proves why they are one of the biggest UK acts rn)04 Ariana Grande - Dangerous Woman (a star is born here tbh, I adored My Everything and Yours Truly was good but this just shows her versatility and star power to its fullest)05 Lady Gaga - Joanne (this was all the better for me having quite low expectations, as it really impacted me when it was actually really good )

I didn't check out anywhere near as many albums as I wanted to last year! But one I did hunt out and fall in love with was Christine and The Queens - 'Chaleur Humaine' Absolutely gorgeous album from start to finish.

David Bowie - 'Blackstar', Beyoncé - 'Lemonade' and Lady Gaga - 'Joanne' were big favourites of 2016 as well. My pleasant surprises of the year were Ariana Grande - 'Dangerous Woman' and All Saints - 'Red Flag', both exceeded my expectations when I was just hoping to maybe take a couple of songs away from each!

I didn't collect that many 2016 albums actually, I got loads of 2015 ones last year, I still collected last year but several with older release dates, not exclusively albums released last year, it took me a while to get round to getting a few 2015 albums too (Twenty One Pilots were a 2016 thing for me too, I started properly listening to them last January despite briefly hearing I Can't Help Falling In Love and Stressed Out beforehand). So a few highlights off the top of my head:

Against The Current - In Our BonesBastille - Wild WorldDavid Bowie - BlackstarThe 1975 - I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of ItThe Cat Empire - Rising With The SunTom Chaplin - The WaveAdam Young's Scores (All of them )